About Me

[in a cabin in the mountains, Jim wakes up and bangs his head on the table he was sleeping under]
Alex Rieger: Jim, are you alright?
"Reverend" Jim Ignatowski: Yeah...uh ... who are you?
Alex Rieger: I'm Alex. We're friends, we work together.
"Reverend" Jim Ignatowski: What? are we, lumberjacks?
Alex Rieger: No, we're cabdrivers.
"Reverend" Jim Ignatowski: I bet we don't do much business up here!

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Thursday, August 31, 2006

Is there a stereotype of all Muslims being stupid? If so, it's Muslims like this that reinforce it:

Hammasa Kohistani made history last year when she was chosen to represent England in the Miss World pageant.

But one year on, the 19-year-old student from Hounslow feels that winning the coveted beauty title last September was a "sugar coating" for Muslims who have become more alienated in the past 12 months.

She said: "The attitude towards Muslims has got worse over the year. Also the Muslims' attitude to British people has got worse.

"Even moderate Muslims are turning to terrorism to prove themselves. They think they might as well support it because they are stereotyped anyway. It will take a long time for communities to start mixing in more.

Yeah, "We will bomb you because you think we will bomb you. How dare you think that of us. Now we bomb you."

And she just got through saying that "even moderate Muslims are turning to terrorism to prove themselves" To prove themselves what? Terrorists? Well, Duh. That would be one way to do it. Let's see, how could they prove themselves to not be terrorists? You think long and hard about that Hammasa. Maybe the Muslim community could start by telling their beauty queens to stop making threats.***Update:A Breitbart AP article points out how some Muslims are actually doing something to reverse the stereotypes:

.....Now the faith's American leaders are starting to warn fellow Muslims about a threat from within.

The 2005 subway attacks in London that investigators say were committed by British-born and -raised Muslims, and the relentless Muslim-engineered sectarian assaults on Iraqi civilians, are among the events that have convinced some U.S. Muslims to change focus.

"This sentiment of denial, that sort of came as a fever to the Muslim community after 9-11, is fading away," said Muqtedar Khan, a political scientist at the University of Delaware and author of "American Muslims." "They realize that there are Muslims who use terrorism, and the community is beginning to stand up to this."

And maybe some Muslims are only paying lip service, but others, like the Muslim who tipped British authorities to the sports-drink bombers, are taking action. That's what is needed to deflate the stereotypes; not veiled threats.(my favorite for Miss England, Vicki Davies, made zero threats, veiled or otherwise)

Shenanigans found! Somebody made Barbara Walters' feet smaller. If you missed this, by the way, don't feel bad. I only found it because I was privy to a closely guarded network secret: Barbara Walters has the biggest feet in the news business. I mean big. Brit Hume is the only other personality who comes close, and his feet are grotesque, like size 18 or something. Back when Barbara was switching jobs, Walter Cronkite commented, in that low-pitched drawl of his, "Maybe she can get a job with the circus or something." Well, Walter always was a mean drunk.

Remember ER? It's changed over the years but when it first came out it was fun to play guess-the-disease along with the characters. The way it worked; they would wheel some guy in and give the symptoms, vital signs etc. and then you started guessing his MC, Medical Condition. If you could beat Dr. Green, you won.

I used to guess pneumothorax a lot. An auto accident comes in, I go into diagnosis mode... Sharp chest pain, Ah-ha, this could be it.... Rapid pulse, Bingo! I'm calling a pneumothorax here. By the time they throw in flared nostrils, I'm jumping on the couch and calling, "Damit woman, bring me a chest tube." The wife always swears she doesn't have a chest tube so I call for a meat thermometer, a Bic pen, and a Pez dispenser instead. (I also used to watch a lot of MacGyver) Not sure what MacGyver would do with those things though. I guess you'd just jam the meat thermometer in the guy's chest and sit there eating Pez till the ambulance arrived. Oh yeah, the pen... um, you could write a message for the ambulance attendant on the guy's forehead, "Hey, someone stabbed this guy with a meat thermometer. Please fix him up."

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

This pedestrian run-down happened in San Francisco so no doubt some residents will be blaming it on loss of control after an Israeli missile strike. I mean, just look at the damage, only an IDF missile can do that to a car.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The driver in a bloody hit-and-run spree that killed one man and injured more than a dozen people was mentally unstable and feeling stress from a recent arranged marriage, according to relatives...

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

I couldn't figure out why the Red Cross would want to un-link their high-res photo of the Red Cross Ambulance Severe Denting Incident. The images are already out there and it's pretty clear that the thing wasn't hit by a missile. Things that are hit by missiles go boom. Anyway, I thought about how *I* would make those kinds of marks on an ambulance and I decided on a little hatchet to make the gashes, and chains, or a flail (I could borrow the wife's) to make the dents. Then I noticed the boot marks where I would have to stand:

Ah, so that's why they un-linked the high res photo.

"Soooo," says Reuters, "the IDF has developed a missile that delivers high velocity hatchets, chains, and boots." (the fiends)

Also: if you could possibly entertain the thought that a missile did this Heinous Denting, check out zombitime coverage.

Does Kofi know public relations, or what? He's a wise man to forego carrying a cult portrait himself. So his next stop will be Israel, right? Or does he think that it was one-way suffering just because MSN didn't show it? Want to know what question wasn't called out to him during this tour?: "Mr. Secretary, which do you think is worse, that Hezbollah started this conflict by attacking Israel, killing and kidnapping soldiers, or that Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel from civilian areas such as this, thereby inviting return fire that was bound to impact the Lebanese people?"

Here Karr is seen pouting because they wouldn't give him time in the exercise yard "with the other guys." Yeah, other, um-hmm.

So what I'm wondering is how it was anyone ever bought his story in the first place. Really, in a fight between this guy and a six-year-old girl, my money is on the girl. Don't get me wrong, he looks like he did something. I'm sure he did something. And if the police can find anything to keep him on, I say go right ahead, keep him around awhile. Use him to demonstrate choke holds at the police academy, use him to calibrate the tasers, just keep him away from civilization.

No, I'm not going to crack wise about Oprah's Lunch being late now that the tractor has lost third gear.

No, I only put this up to illustrate the size of lumberkid's book bag. It's not quite this big, but it's close. And what it cost to fill it, yokes! ( that was supposed to be "yikes!" but looking at it, I kind of like yokes better.... "I heard some portuguese ran his car into your hen house, Gustave." -- "Oh, Yokes! you never saw such a mess!") Anyway, yikes! too, her books cost something close to $700 - and this is high school. I remember paying $280 for my college textbooks and thinking it was a scandal.

And there better be some real learnin' in those books. For that kind of money Pluto better still be a planet, and global warming just a theory. I'm not paying 9-planet money for 8-planet books. < / rant >

Good News so far is: we made it through the first day of highschool. By we, I mean her. I was out knocking down conifers while she tiptoed through the minefield of cliques, stern lunchladies, and locker combinations that don't open the locker. All in all I'd say that she worked harder but I sweat more. She was ready for bed at 9:00, and I bet it takes howler monkeys to get her up tomorrow.

You know, for some time I've gotten the feeling that some western bloggers look down on Muslims. I'm not going to point fingers but you know who you are. You read a story about how an Islamic family has gotten together and stabbed a daughter to death because she wanted to date a westerner and right off the bat you judge them. And you always concentrate on the negative aspects of the event. Nobody has ever commented on how daughter-murdering builds teamwork and a spirit of cooperation among the surviving family members.

Anyway, these cultural differences often seem to put the West at odds with Islam, and I think we should be looking instead for things in each other's cultures that we can agree on. Like take for instance this latest conversion to Islam of the two Fox News reporters.

I heard about it on the way out of church this morning. I was driving past the Baptist church when it struck me: Why don't the concerned parishioners of our church start abducting Baptists at gunpoint and forcing their conversion to Catholicism? I mean, two or three a week would really add up over the course of a year. And think of how pleased God would be. A win-win situation if ever there was one. And not just the Baptists, why we could start taking anyone who's not Catholic. And then we could start converting anyone who is not the right type of Catholic. See? And some of you were thinking that Muslim culture had nothing to teach us.

Saturday, August 26, 2006

It's not just the armband tattoo - Pam Anderson has got some serious stupidity issues as well. She and her PETA friends want less chicken eaten in Asia:

HONG KONG - Animal rights activists Peta kicked off an Asian online campaign with the help of "Baywatch" star Pamela Anderson who urged diners to boycott American fast-food giant KFC over alleged mistreatment of chickens.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said it had sent a graphic video narrated by the blonde actress along with a letter written by her, to the fast-food chain's operations in Hong Kong, where chickens are a favourite with local Chinese.

Hmmm, just what other meat might some Asian cultures substitute? And it's not a judgement, heck the French eat horse meat, I don't care, but it's a fact that if Pam and her friends keep people from eating at the KFC, at least some of them will be having dog instead.

Remember the Berlin Wall? How odd it is to have to explain it to a kid who was born after the wall fell in 1989. You see the wall was to keep people in. No really, they were afraid that if people could do as they pleased, they'd all leave. No really. Well what was so wrong with their side of the wall that people wouldn't want to stay on their side, where their homes are?

Exactly.

But there is a wall today that you can point to as an example. It's Islam's wall. Michelle Malkin is covering another case of Islam erecting a wall to keep it's people in. Lina Joy faces the same situation that Abdul Rahman faced earlier this year. She converted to Christianity, so many Muslims would like to see her murdered. Maybe also, many Muslims would like to join her in climbing over that wall.

So ask the simple question, the one that "good" Muslims aren't allowed to ask: What is so wrong with that side of the wall? Why would anyone want to leave? Westerners can see it. Sharia law doesn't just strike us as wrong, many parts of it strike us as insane. It's insane to charge a rape victim with adultery. It's insane to mandate rape of a sister as punishment for a brother's crime. Yet these things happen on their side of the wall.

Muslim 'Purity Police' Beat Young Girls To Prevent Them from Leaving Burning School15 Saudi Arabian girls died today because the religious police or muttawa prevented them from escaping a school fire because their hair was not covered and they were not wearing long robes.A civil defense officer told Al-Eqtisadiah he saw three members of the muttawa "beating young girls to prevent them from leaving the school."

King Fahd of Saudi Arabia offered his condolences to the families of the girls that burned alive in the fire and is calling for a high level commission to investigate. The Saudi press is also claiming to be outraged over the whole incident. Evidently this is the first time Saudi Arabian newspapers, which are privately owned but under heavy government supervision, have ever attacked the religious police....

And that's the problem. Why do old men with sticks, the muttawa, go around beating Muslims into doing their interpretation of God's will, and no Muslims raise their voices in complaint? The answer is in the question: it's those old men with sticks. And that is somewhat understandable. What has me scratching my head, is why westerners aren't speaking out more. Now would be the time I think, because once Iran has nuclear weapons, those old men will have a stick that can reach us all. And I'm afraid the old men with sticks are insane enough to use the big stick, even though it would mean their sure destruction.

Sarah Hall did an article on poor, misunderstood, Tom Cruise, and after a long list of Tom's oddments, we get:

So, what's not to like? Nothing, according to Cruise's attorney, Bert Fields.

"What was his personal conduct?" Fields asked in an interview with the New York Post. "Jumping on a couch on Oprah Winfrey because he's in love with Katie Holmes? That really deserves the death penalty?

What? A lawyer is making his case? Does anyone else get the feeling that the public might get sued in a California court and be ordered to start liking Tom Cruise again? Watch out for a court order mandating that 43% of us start going to his movies again. Or that 26% of us have to buy a Dixie Chick CD.

(and, no lie, on NPR yesterday I heard some British person commenting on how she fears that we've come to judge personalities based on religion or political beliefs... Little did she suspect that we also judge people on the stupid things they say on NPR)

Farmers believe cows "moo" with an accentLONDON (Reuters) - Cows have regional accents, a group of farmers claims, and phonetics experts say the idea is not as far-fetched as it sounds.

Lloyd Green, from southwest England, was one of a group of farmers who first noticed the phenomenon.

"I spend a lot of time with my Friesians and they definitely 'moo' with a Somerset drawl," he said, referring to the breed of dairy cow he owns.

"I've spoken to the other farmers in the West Country group and they have noticed a similar development in their own herds.

"I think it works the same as with dogs - the closer a farmer's bond is with his animals, the easier it is for them to pick up his accent."

I've met and spoken with English cows in the past and I've never been able to understand a word they've said. Best I could do is sprinkle the pauses in conversation with, "uh-huh"s, "mmmm"s, and "oh, really?"s.

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Arizona Sen. John McCain will visit Greenland, Turkey, Georgia, Montenegro and Italy as part of a Senate delegation headed overseas during Congress' summer break.

McCain and the other Republican senators want to observe the effects of global warming while in Greenland. They also will attend an A-list economic and political conference at a swanky northern Italian resort.

The first word says it all: Arizona. "Oh, look, global warming at the resorts.... we were afraid this would happen." Greenland, yeah sure. Global warming will be evident at the Nuuk Tiki Bar.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

I see Michelle Malkin linked to the 2996 project. Good, the sign-up page will be flooded with volunteers now. I kept meaning to add the code to my sidebar but have been a little afraid of making the whole site go kerflooie. This is a plain vanilla template and it hasn't always responded well to my tinkering. Anyway, I did finally add the code so if you have a blog and think you might want to do a tribute to one of the victims of 911, just click on the sidebar graphic. Signup is easy though there may be some delay in getting processed now that the site is getting Malkined.

What 2996 is, is (from the site):

2,996 is a tribute to the victims of 9/11.

On September 11, 2006, 2,996 volunteer bloggers will join together for a tribute to the victims of 9/11. Each person will pay tribute to a single victim.

We will honor them by remembering their lives, and not by remembering their murderers.

If you would like to help out, either by pledging to post a tribute on your own blog, or by offering your services to promote this cause, just leave a comment here and I’ll email you the name of a victim.

Then, on 9/11/2006, you will post a tribute to that victim on your blog.

But, and this is critical, the tributes should celebrate the lives of these people–kind of like a wake. Over the last 5 years we’ve heard the names of the killers, and all about the victim’s deaths. This is a chance to learn about and celebrate those who died. Forget the murderers, they don’t deserve to be remembered. But some people who died that day deserve to be remembered–2,996 people.Thank you,D.Challener Roe

I will be remembering Thomas H. McGinnis, a 41 year old father of one, who died at One World Trade Center.

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - A federal judge blocked a plan by the US government to allow commercial logging in California's Giant Sequoia National Monument, handing a victory to environmentalists who had sued to protect the ancient trees.

The giant Sequoias, evergreen redwood trees native only to California's Sierra Nevada, can live for several thousand years and grow 90 meters...

I don't want to cause an argument but the fact that they're such magnificent, awe inspiring, trees is exactly what makes them fun to cut down. Speaking as a guy who pretends to be a lumberjack, I'm pretty sure the regulations still allow me to cut down trees that are pretending to be Sequoias.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

LGF says that the UN is displeased with Israel's response to arms smuggling:

Anti-Israel UN tool Terje Roed-Larsen says that if Israel discovers Hizballah smuggling arms into Lebanon, they should file a complaint through diplomatic channels.....

“If you discovered arms smuggling, you could have complained through diplomatic channels,” Larsen told Livni.

“We will consider that route as well,” Livni replied with a smile.

Well, it's good to report that now Israel has said it will comply with filling all reports necessary with the UN. It just took them awhile to have the forms printed due to what they called, "stenciling difficulties".

They also promise the arms smugglers will receive the forms in triplicate.***Update:

What is it? Day 6 since Iran put the west to the test with the Holocaust cartoons? And still no rioting? Meanwhile in Tehran they protest and rage that on most days the sky contains the colors of the Israeli flag.

I was a little worried about the French being so gung-ho about UN enforcement of the Hezbo treaty. They're French, right? Who was going to make sure they didn't surrender to the street vendors? And ok, really, my fear would be that they take sides. Better news though:

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi has said his country is willing to lead the force and offered some 3,000 troops, but he insisted a new UN Security Council resolution was needed to clearly define the role of the peacekeepers.

Reasonable, and even better, not French. Meanwhile:

France, Lebanon's former colonial power, had been expected to lead the force but has so far offered only 200 additional troops to beef up the existing 2,000-strong UN Interim Force in Lebanon.

D'Alema said he hoped France might reconsider its offer of only 400 troops. It had originally been expected to contribute at least 2,000.

Monday, August 21, 2006

Pope: Don't work too hard20/08/2006 16:36 - (SA)Castelgandolfo - Too much work can be bad for you, even if you are the pope, Pope Benedict said on Sunday.

Speaking during his Sunday address at his summer residence south of Rome, the pope quoted from the writings of St Bernard of Chiaravalle, who lived in the 11th and 12th centuries.

"We have to guard ourselves, the saint observed, from the dangers of excessive activity, regardless of the office one holds, because too many concerns can often lead to hardness of heart," the pope said.

He doesn't have to tell me twice. (course, I'm not sure what you're supposed to do if you like your job)

Sunday, August 20, 2006

Kerry lays out the Democrat strategy: Repeat "Lieberman is a Republican," over and over.

Kerry accused the 2000 Democratic vice presidential candidate of "adopting the rhetoric of Dick Cheney," on the issue of Iraq.

"Joe Lieberman is out of step with the people of Connecticut," Kerry added, insisting Lieberman's stance on Iraq, "shows you just why he got in trouble with the Democrats there."

Lieberman, like Bill Clinton, wants to keep abortion "safe, legal, and rare." He wants to "greatly increase" spending on education and the environment. He doesn't support repeal of the estate tax. He wants to increase taxes on those earning over 150 k/year. He wants to greatly decrease taxes on those earning less than 75 k/year. He's in favor of medical marijuana, supports affirmative action in college admissions, and favors an increase in the federal minimum wage. And he's in favor of stem cell research.

Yeah, sounds just like Cheney. Give the man a shotgun and show him the secret handshake; he's obviously one of us.

(2006-08-21) — Just a day after Sen. John Kerry, D-MA, implied that Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-CT, is the new Dick Cheney, the amiable Sen. Lieberman offered to “patch things up” by taking Mr. Kerry on a hunting trip in his native state.

Friday, August 18, 2006

A state-run Cuban daily has published new pictures of Fidel Castro, showing the ailing but smiling communist strongman in bed, receiving his brother Raul and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. In this image, Fidel holds up a birthday gift from Chavez.(AFP/Granma-HO)

Andrew Sullivan links to an argument that liquid explosives would be too hard to mix on a plane, and suggesting that there never really was much to worry about. I don't know about you but I'm darned pleased that the same people who became experts on Persian culture when we went into Afghanistan have now instantly become experts on binary bomb making. Thank goodness they know how to use google and aren't afraid to share their vast knowledge. The google genius this time is Thomas C Greene. I suspect that Mr Greene would balk at getting on a plane with this last bunch of plotters though. Maybe it's time to say it again: You're going off half-cocked Andrew.

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Non-riots are breaking out everywhere as this photo of Jessica Biel confirms. Earlier reports that "she looks like she's getting ready to throw her purse," have proved to be false. In fact, I had to study the evidence for several minutes before I could even find the purse. Look closely, it's really there.

***Update:All seems quiet in my area. In a chance meeting with local law enforcement I learned three things:

1) There have been no reports of burning mosques.2) Only an idiot would riot because of cartoons.3) The light had changed from yellow to red before I entered the intersection.

Thank goodness, it looks as though our first reports of rioting over the Iranian cartoons was a false alarm. If you look closely at the image, it appears to be more a depiction of a man in a boat made from newspapers than "Christians and Jews run amok over the Iranian Holocost cartoons." This is encouraging.

We're checking closely to make sure that the images haven't had rioting photoshopped out, but so far it looks good. I don't know if this is a miracle or not, but what I do know is that the widely anticipated violence over these cartoons has failed to happen.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Iranian women attend the international cartoon contest on the Holocaust in Tehran. An international contest of cartoons on the Holocaust opened in Tehran today in response to the publication in Western papers last September of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed. "We staged this fair to explore the limits of freedom Westerners believe in," Masoud Shojai, head of the country's "Iran Cartoon" association and the fair organizer, said.(AFP/Behrouz Mehri)

Oh man, we're being tested. Now look everyone, get the word out: THERE ARE TO BE NO RIOTS OVER THESE CARTOONS! I mean it. Those of you who were planning riots are just going to have to cowboy-up and fight the urge. OK? Take a pill or something but cancel any planned riots now. Just do it for your country. Please.

And don't think America is blind to your pain. Lady Liberty knows what you're going through. She knows your outrage, your pain. And believe me, she knows, and God knows, that you deserve to vent your rage. But this is not a time for venting. Sure, normally we'd all be killing people by now. Let's be honest; we all do it. Why, Chuck Norris has killed 7 cartoonists and a dog groomer already this year. But Chuck knows we're being watched and he says he'll leave the nunchucks at home if I do the same with my axes and chainsaws. Know what I said to that? "you betcha, buddy."

OK, so join Chuck and I in not rampaging over these cartoons. We're trying to set up an 800 number for those of you who need someone to talk to. Let's all pull together and we can get through this thing.

***Update:

Good news people. The campaign is only hours old and already reports of not rioting are coming in from all over the country. Let's hope this Unriot continues to grow.

Call me a crazy optimist but I think we might just pass this test.

*** Update II:It's now confirmed; not rioting has broken out in Key West. Don't believe me? Too good to be true? Well, there's proof.

Bush drops reference to 'Islamic fascists'STATE DEPARTMENT President Bush has avoided repetition of a term that angered Muslims....

I suspected there would be outrage. Islamic fascists can be terribly sensitive.

OK, I know. It's not the fascists who are upset -- it's regular Muslims. In very much the same way that regular Christians were upset when Jim Jones' Peoples Temple was referred to as a "doomsday Christian cult". Oh wait. I guess there was no outrage at calling it a "doomsday Christian cult".

What I meant to say is: Muslims are upset in very much the same way that Christians would have been upset about a "doomsday Christian" reference had there actually been any Christians who were upset by this -- which there weren't.

DON’T APOLOGIZENidra PollerParis 8 August 2006Don’t apologize. Don’t express sincere regrets. Don’t promise to investigate. Don’t fall into that trap. Apologize in private, in the privacy of the heart, apologize in prayer, ask for divine forgiveness, but don’t apologize to public opinion. Don’t fall into the traps set by vicious jihadis and relayed by unscrupulous media....

... What is the role of French diplomacy in the Lebanese conflict? President Chirac packaged it as a “humanitarian crisis”…only two days after the outbreak of hostilities. MFA Douste-Blazy inadvertently admitted that France has been calling for a cease fire…since the very beginning. Is France a secret ally of Hizbullah? Or simply a well-behaved dhimmi state? A dhimmi does not need to be told how to react to this or that incident, he just has to grasp the underlying concept of jihad conquest: jihadis can attack infidels, infidels do not have the right to strike back.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Karol Sheinin has a post on MM's blog about a new kerfuffle involving George Allen having called some malaka a "macaca". Or do I mean he called some macaca a "malaka"? Now I'm not sure. But "malaka" is a sorta crude term of endearment, meaning, sort of meaning, in a sense: "wanker". I suppose, because it's a little crude, you won't get anyone to admit one way or the other which word the senator was looking for.

Anyway, the wanker that was called the name is an Indian. I'm not sure if that's an India Indian or American Indian, but the pertinent organizations promptly grabbed their chests and collapsed to the floor in howling pain. Gasping, "white... man .... words..hurt ... getting dim... can't see..." (bunch of malakas)

When one of the wailing aggrieved was asked for specifics though (via Rich Lowry):

Asked what macaca means, Mukherjee said: "What it means, I don't know. But it's going to cause him some grief."

I haven't quite figured out how you can get dehydrated on a liquid diet but the always newsworthy Cindy Sheehan pulled it off. Of course there was a week there when her picture wasn't on the front page so I suppose she may have cut out liquid too, just to stir things up. And I, along with everyone else, will just ignore her claim that she was tricked off the "fast" by al-Maliki a week ago.

Anyway, poor, poor Cindy may have the right idea, as a quick glance at Yahoo News' most popular stories shows that:

1) Hot dogs may mutate your DNA and give you cancer.

2)An occasional cup of coffee might trigger first heart attacks in some people.

I guess if you've already had one heart attack it's ok to drink coffee though. No word on what hot dogs will do if you've already had your first mutated DNA. Personally, I've let my DNA go over the years and some mutation may be desirable.

Anyway, isn't mutated DNA the heart and soul of evolution? If so, it will be us hot dog eaters on the cutting edge of the next and best human model. And the people who listen to chicken-little doctors will be stuck with their standard issue bodies while I and my cronies are levitating, and downing birds on the wing with the power of our minds alone. And I'm sure we'll constantly be showing off our powers just to make regular folks feel inferior. We'll pretty much be insufferable, I bet. Just like Cindy. Woo-hoo, I brought the post back around to Cindy. Poor poor Cindy. It always comes back to Cindy.

CNN Int'l snubs Israeli civiliansHighly unbalanced report mostly ignores plight of Israeli civilians, portrays Israelis as soldiers and politicians in suits, while coverage from Lebanon features in-depth interviews with Lebanese civilians and images of children and ruins; no mention of large number of Israelis displaced from their homes in north...

It's no wonder that the ceasefire makes no sense; we've been told almost nothing about the war. It's been a celebration of Lebanese victimhood. You can get a sense of what's happening from Michael Totten though. Too bad there's only one of him over there.

Davids Medienkritik looks at how left-wing extremists and Islamists are flocking together in Germany. Not that it's a German phenomenon, the pairing seems to be happening here too. And it's easy enough to understand, "You hate Bush? Whatdayouknow, we hate Bush too." But I have to wonder about the depth of the left's understanding of Islamism. Are they thinking that somehow after the grown-ups are frogmarched to their cells that agnostics, atheists, and Mao worshipers will get a pass from the Islamists?

And that brings up another question, where are the atheists these days? The same leftists who used to delight in calling Christianity a fairy tale seem to be silent on the question of Islam. Maybe, because it would force a contradiction, the modern leftist has decided not to visit the question of Islam. That doesn't mean that Islam won't visit him when the time comes.

Saturday, August 12, 2006

For the life of me I can't see why the powers that be can't differentiate between Islam and Islamism. Paul Belien writes about the latter, about a subset of Islam that want's to see all of Europe an Islamic state. In truth, they want a new Caliphate; worldwide Islamic rule. These people exist. You can argue about their numbers and their support among Muslims but you can't make them go away by making it illegal to speak of them.

This is what Belgium wants

Harmony. I get that, I do. And maybe most Belgian Muslims do too. But that doesn't mean they all do. In fact it is certain that had the soda-bombers been successful in their plans to bring down 10 transatlantic airliners, there would be some in Belgium cheering and dancing in the streets; celebrating the deaths of thousands of innocents.

But the censors in Belgium want Paul Belien to ignore those who would celebrate terror. As if by ignoring them you could make them go away.

Note that this ban on speech is a fluid thing, it changes depending on who you are criticizing. The same Belgian website that displayed the above peace-and-harmony image also shows these:

Some call for the death of Condoleeza Rice:

And look, here's a racial caricature of her on her coffin:

And of course her daddy, Hitler:

And let's just throw in the universal killer of children:

Now I'm not saying that these Euroweenies should be silenced. Though I wonder that anyone in Europe would want to bring up the subject of Hitler. That's Adolph Hitler you know, and you want to bring up that subject? Perhaps they think that because some of their fellow marchers use the word zionist instead of Jew, that they're no longer antisemites. Oh, or that maybe there will no longer be antisemites if we don't use the word Jew.

No, I'd ask the Belgian censors not to restrict the speech of anyone unless it is designed to provoke violence. The showing of Condoleeza Rice's wanted poster is important because it tells you about the people who made it. If Paul Belien's speech reflects poorly on him then let him speak; the reader can decide for himself. I've read the Brussels Journal for some time and I see no hate there. Certainly not as much hate as depicted by these protesters, on a Belgian website.

You may have noticed that I try not to get too political except when, well, except when I do. OK, so in keeping with that, I should probably identify all my favorite French Socialists. Here's one, Segolene Royal. via Blue Crab Boulevard. She is 53,the mother of four, and running for President of France. She could win too, woo-hoo, you know? Then again, you know, it's France.

Friday, August 11, 2006

From Little Green Footballs, I read that some of the Kos Kidz think the GOP website added a “Hitler mustache” to an image of Howard Dean. "Yikes," I thought. Well, I'm all about investigations so I blew up the image for closer inspection. See what you think: